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Alan Turing (Alan Turing,1912-1954), as a mathematician, became interested in the formation of regular repetitive patterns in nature.

He published the Chemical basis of Morphogenesis in 1952, suggesting that the naturally formed striped images on many organisms in nature, such as zebras, cheetahs and shells, may be produced by the alternating interaction of two specific substances (which can be molecular, chromosome or cellular), that is, according to a model called "reaction-expansion". These two components will spontaneously and self-organize to form structures such as markings, rings, spirals or mottled spots, which are called "Turing structures".

Biomimetic association and "Turing structure" James Morri, professor emeritus of mathematical biology at the University of Oxford, has made an interesting analogy to this phenomenon. For a visual understanding of how the reaction expansion model works, imagine a dry grass with a large number of grasshoppers, smoldering on the grass, and the fire is slowly spreading to the whole grassland. The grasshoppers were suffocated and most of them stayed where they were. When the fire spread near each grasshopper, it acted as a local fire extinguishing agent as the water in the grasshopper evaporated. Due to the ingenious combination of the oxidation reaction of fire and the interaction of water evaporation and diffusion and other parameters in the grasshopper, different black-yellow, short-range disordered and long-range ordered patches appear on the burned grassland. This gives a visual explanation of the formation of the "Turing structure".

In the study of the mechanism of the formation of this biological speckle, can we get the inspiration of association and the artificial synthesis of similar substances? According to a report in the journal Science in 2018, researchers dissolved piperazine and triformyl chloride in water and oil respectively, and the two small molecules polymerized at the interface between water and oil. due to the alternation of diffusion rate and reaction rate, a smooth polymer film is formed at the interface in a few seconds, and the thickness of the dense layer is about 100 nm. By adding polyvinyl alcohol to the polymerization and adjusting the diffusion rate of piperazine, a polymer speckle film with nanometer scale and "Turing structure" was prepared. As a new type of nanofiltration membrane, this kind of membrane material can be used for deep purification of drinking water, such as salt water desalination, industrial water recovery and other fields, and the speed of water purification can be three or four times higher than that of the traditional nanofiltration membrane. this is also an example of effective invention and innovation from the association of natural phenomena.

The study of bionics often gives rise to many wonderful ideas. We don't think it's new to see a fly turning briskly and hanging upside down from the ceiling. For years, however, scientists have not been able to figure out how such insects perform this aerial stunt, and even modern drones cannot match the complex landing skills of flies. Exploring this mystery can help robots and pilots simulate the unique flight movements of insects, and it is a fascinating research work.

How do flies land? in order to build machines that can mimic insect movements, Bo Cheng, a mechanical engineer at Pennsylvania State University, and his team used high-speed cameras to photograph and analyze the upside-down landing of more than 20 green-headed flies in a cockpit, China Science Daily reported.

Flies land in a variety of ways. Some flies first put their front legs on the surface of the object, like a back flip, and then put their bodies in place; some landing methods look more like side rollers.

The team found that flies rely mainly on visual cues to perform these movements. When the fly sees that it is about to collide with the ceiling, it must decide within 50 milliseconds how to turn its body upside down and grasp the ceiling with its feet or fly away.

Cheng and his colleagues reported their findings in the October 23, 2019 issue of the journal Progress in Science. It also describes 15 failed landings, indicating that the most agile flies sometimes make mistakes.

The researchers believe that the study of flight movements across species (flies, mosquitoes, bees) is only in its infancy, and hopes to use flies to teach robots flight skills such as imitating flies' rollers, just as children imitate their parents. The study of bionics is full of challenges as well as fun.

Similar bionic association inventions include chemical weapons. Although chemical weapons have now been banned internationally, they have also been improved by Lenovo, inspired by biological mechanisms in the initial process of its development. A little-known fact is that when chemical gases are stored in cylinders and are not used for a long time, valves and other devices will be so corroded that there is no way to use them properly, thus turning them into a hot potato.

In order to solve this problem, the researchers got inspiration from a kind of "air step beetle". They found that there were two vesicles in the beetle, respectively, containing p-benzoquinone O O and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), neither of which was harmful.

When the beetle bites other creatures, the two sacs emit two kinds of chemicals at the same time, which react instantly and produce highly toxic substances to repel the enemy. As a result of the association of this mechanism, scientists invented binary chemical weapons, that is, to store non-toxic substances in two containers, and when in use, the two substances were mixed and instantly synthesized into chemical weapons, thus solving the problem of the original storage of chemical weapons.

Of course, how do you evaluate the invention of such an association? Is this an invention harmful to society? Does the monitoring and verification of chemical weapons create difficulties? This problem not only tests the human civilization and moral level, but also tests the evaluation system of innovation and invention.

Source: "Apocalypse of Scientific and technological Innovation: anecdotes of Masters of Innovation and Invention" author: Jinyong Tsinghua University Press some pictures come from the network copyright belongs to the original author brief introduction to ★ author ★

Jin Yong, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University; Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; graduated from Ural University of Technology in the Soviet Union in 1959, taught at University of Science and Technology of China from 1959 to 1973, and taught at Tsinghua University from 1973 to 2019; majoring in chemical reaction engineering and eco-industrial engineering, he is enthusiastic about science popularization in recent years. He is currently the executive director of the Chinese Society of Chemical Engineering and the China Institute of particles, the vice chairman of the Chinese Society of Ecological Economics, the director of the Professional Committee of Industrial Ecological Economics and Technology, and the consultant of the Institute of Industrial Innovation and Finance of Tsinghua University. he was a member of the discipline review panel and convener of the degree committee of the State Council, and a professional adviser to the third to sixth Beijing Municipal Government. He has won National Science and Technology Progress Award, National Invention Award, American Society of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Chair Professor Award, National May Day Labor Medal, National Model worker, National Outstanding teacher Award, Sinorama Engineering Science and Technology Award, and "praise 2016 Top Ten Science Communication figures in China". Introduction to ★ 's works ★

This is a popular book about innovation. In this book, the author gives a popular explanation of his understanding and understanding of innovation to the public in an "approachable" way, which is interspersed with hundreds of stories of masters of innovation and invention, transforming what should be abstract, obscure and complex content into vivid and vivid pictures, from which innovative passion and concise enlightenment are conveyed. In the current era of great change in building an innovative country, and at a turning point when our country is moving from an economic power to an economic power, the author hopes that this book will be beneficial to young readers who advance bravely in the torrent, explorers of various industries wandering in the threshold of invention and creation, as well as leading cadres and civil servants eager to create a new situation of change. This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Origin Reading (ID:tupydread), by Jin Yong.

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